


All for Nothing

by MastermindKiyondo



Category: Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 13:34:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19906543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MastermindKiyondo/pseuds/MastermindKiyondo
Summary: The story of the psychopathy, deceit, and internal suspicion within Team Galactic, as told by Saturn.





	1. The Lake Valor Mission

Everything had gone well so far. We’d stolen power from the turbines at the Valley Windworks, and we’d used that power to create an extremely powerful bomb. An explosive that could blow the water from a large lake such as Lake Valor. It wasn’t that difficult of a job as far as I could tell. Remove the water with the explosion, and retrieve the legendary Pokemon from the cave in the very center of the lake. That was what I was assigned to do, and it was going well. Perhaps Cyrus would be pleased, or at least easier on us. At least, that was what I’d hoped as I murmured such things to myself. 

I felt that I was being watched, however, and turned to find a young child who was clearly a very young trainer. This must be the one I had been warned about, and I certainly was not happy to see him. He must have been some kind of fearless idiot, trying to face me. But, he had successfully beaten my colleague, Jupiter, in battle. I was disappointed in her, but in hindsight, she may have been distracted by her leg, which was still in a brace from a so-called ‘workplace accident’. I doubted that, as Cyrus had been in a rather horrible mood that day. Nevertheless, I battled the trainer. My Golbat and Bronzor fell victim to the child’s Torterra, which he referred to as Twiggy; I found this both revolting and somewhat cute.

He ended up being stronger than I thought. That was fine. I expected them to fall easily. My Toxicroak, however, could handle this half-ton tortoise quite easily. I thought that would be it, and ordered Toxicroak to use a potent Cross Poison. What I didn’t expect was for the Torterra to dodge the attack, and the poison attack to hit the trainer instead. I stood in shock, withdrawing Toxicroak back into it’s ball and forfeiting the match. Toxicroak’s venom was fatally poisonous to humans, and I soon realized the trainer was dying right in front of me. Being in a cave in the middle of a dried up lake and being involved in criminal activity, there was nothing I could do. The Torterra, Twiggy, looked devastated, its eyes filled with grief, and then anger as it looked at me. Oh, no. 

I slowly began to back away from the Torterra as I had completed my assignment anyway. I had hardly made it to the entrance of the cave when Twiggy snapped, hurling sharp leaves at me. I bolted from the cave as fast as I could, shouting to the scattered grunts to run. They looked confused for a split second before the raging Torterra gave them a good reason. We had to get out of the Lakefront, and very quickly. We had transportation waiting for us outside, but getting to it proved difficult; dodging boulders and flopping Magikarp made it hard enough, but climbing the roughly cut stairs at the edge of the lake was only made possible by the collective adrenaline throughout all of us. We made it to the convoy waiting outside the lake, and quickly sped north toward Veilstone. That had been much too close.

I didn’t report the death. But I did say that the child wouldn’t bother us anymore. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the entire truth. I didn’t sleep that night; all I could think about was the trainer and the Torterra. But it wasn’t my fault, was it? It was really Toxicroak’s fault…but at the same time, it wasn’t. Whoever’s fault it was, I still felt guilty.

It was much too late, but this was when I began to have doubts about Team Galactic.


	2. Headquarters

My doubts would only deepen and further trouble me as the days passed. What bothered me most was how strangely Cyrus was acting since the extraction and replication of the gems from the foreheads and twin tails of the legendary lake Pokemon. Not that he wasn’t strange normally, but since the creation of the red chain, he seemed almost…excited. It unsettled me to my core; he was normally somewhat abusive - he’d nearly run Mars through after she confessed about what had happened at the Valley Windworks - so I couldn’t help but fear what would happen if any of us made a mistake this late in our mission.

I stayed in the basement laboratory, wanting to stay as far from the rest of Team Galactic as I could until I could clear my thoughts. I often looked at Azelf, the Pokemon I had collected from Lake Valor. Its small face was twisted with agony, as it had only a bloody hole where its gem had been. If that trainer were still alive, would he have come here to rescue it, along with Uxie and Mesprit? What was the purpose of keeping them here after the procedure was done? 

I took a step back from the trio, looking around the lab for Charon, who would no doubt tell Cyrus what I was about to do. When I found no sight of him, I focused my attention on the large red button that would open their prisons and release them. That kid would most certainly have come to defeat me again, and press that very button. He had said something about Pokemon being his friends, a contradiction to Team Galactic’s view on Pokemon. Pokemon were only tools here, issued like property. The look of pure grief in that Torterra’s eyes was burned into my memory; it had feelings, just as these legendary Pokemon likely did. It was cruel to keep them here.

I pressed the button, freeing the lake trio. Uxie and Azelf were quick to leave, but Mesprit hovered there, gazing at me like it knew what I had done. There was something special about that trainer. He had been slowly driving our organization out of Sinnoh, and trying to defeat us at all costs. He’d come to the Valley Windworks, he’d come to the Eterna building, and he’d even come to the bottom of Lake Valor. It wasn’t wrong to assume that he’d have come here, or even scaled Mount Coronet to stop us. Maybe we weren’t doing the right thing. All of this hassle for a new world that Cyrus wanted. Somebody had to do something, and that somebody was dead. Mesprit disappeared, and I heard footsteps. Charon.

Charon was very upset about the lake trio being gone. I told him the trainer had come to free them, and defeated me in battle. I’d heard he could sneak in unnoticed before, so this scenario was at least somewhat believable, and he seemed to be buying it. He’d likely tell Cyrus this lie as well, but it was better than the truth. As he shuffled off to likely do just that, I sat down on the floor next to the machine. It wasn’t going to be good either way, but it was the better option to lie. Perhaps I would be in a leg brace like Jupiter.

I heard something approach, and stood up as quickly as I could. A dark blue-grey blur flew past me, and I felt something slice through my uniform just below my throat. It had torn a sizable gash by my collarbone. Looking around, I found an all too familiar Weavile snickering at me. I heard footsteps, and chills ran down my spine. A harsh lecture would soon follow, but from his words, I could tell that he’d believed the lie I’d told Charon. He still didn’t know the kid was dead, and I’d take that secret to the grave if I had to. Or it could be that the secret would lead me to my grave, considering the way Cyrus had been lately.

It wouldn’t be long until our long awaited journey to Spear Pillar. But before we went, I had to talk to the other commanders.


	3. Mount Coronet

After changing into a new uniform that wasn’t torn, I went to find Mars and Jupiter for a private conversation. I slightly outranked them so it wasn’t too hard to get them both together. I began to tell them about my suspicions about Cyrus and the organization itself. They listened, but I could tell they didn’t share my sentiments. What would it take to convince them? With the trip to Spear Pillar only hours away, both of my colleagues left to prepare. They were both going with Cyrus, while I stayed behind in Veilstone. But it wasn’t that simple. I would, in fact, be going with them, but following at a distance.

I waited a half hour before starting after them. Scaling Mount Coronet alone was certainly no easy feat, considering the steep, rocky walls that I had to climb to even find the correct path. I wandered through the labyrinth, following several sets of footprints to a hole in the wall of the cave. It would take a while for me to make it to the final stretch of cave before the exit that lead to the start of the peak. The air was bitterly cold and the snow came down in droves as I scaled another rocky wall and stepped through the tall grass. I was nearly to the next part of the cave when I stumbled. My foot had hit something hard and frozen. Could it be a Pokemon?

It was covered in snow, and unmoving. Perhaps it was a Pokemon that had not survived the cold, or an Ice type that had keeled over. Morbid curiosity came over me, and I brushed away some of the fresh snow. Instead of finding the hide of a Pokemon, I found a sickeningly familiar grey uniform. I brushed away more of the snow until I found a face. Jupiter was lying in the snow, presumably unable to take the cold, or unable to walk this far with her leg brace. They’d clearly left her and continued on to Spear Pillar. The anger inside me only grew when I remembered that a few of the grunts, and even Cyrus himself, owned a fire type Pokemon that could have saved her life. How could he lack simple compassion? 

It suddenly became apparent why Cyrus was so odd and stoic, and even why he seemed a world without human emotions; he was a clinical psychopath. He just had to be. With such an explanation, everything made so much more sense. His lack of understanding of emotions, the way he could influence people and manipulate them, even what little I’d heard about his childhood; he’d been antisocial and preferred machines as company rather than people. Now, he was going to summon two legendary Pokemon to create a world that would perfectly suit a psychopath with a god complex.

I took one last look at Jupiter before continuing into the cave at a much quicker pace. I passed a few grunts, who looked rather confused and surprised to see me. I had no time to explain why I’d abandoned headquarters or why I had broken into a full sprint as my feet hit the snow outside. Just one more small cave and I would be at the very top of Mount Coronet. I ran without stopping for a breath, and hoped I wouldn’t find Mars in the snow as well. It wasn’t going to end well.

I burst through the last cave and out onto smooth stone and open sky. Worn marble pillars jutted from the ground, some crumbling with age. And up ahead, I saw Cyrus.


End file.
